Best Method to Aerate

[sixn3is7]

I live near Pensacola, FL and our pool, with dark liner, stays too hot for me to enjoy. I decided to make an aerator that connects to the Polaris return and, depending on nighttime temp/humidity I can lower pool temp 3-6 DegF.

Now, I am making the change to borates and the wife and I have running bet. Looking at the pictures, which method, direct injection or long hang-time, is better for raising PH?

I use long hang-time for lowering the pool temp. When the water leaves the PVC pipe, the temperature lowers 3-4 by time the droplets return to the water. I would estimate the height of the arch to be about 8'.

 

[woodyp]

I'm a hang time guy myself. Looks prettier too!

 

[JasonLion]

Lots of small bubbles are best for aeration. The lower photo should be more effective based on what I see in the photos, though either approach will work well.

 

[chem geek]

I vote for direct injection. You want to maximize the air-water interface and direct injection not only adds air bubbles to the water but it also churns the water making waves getting a large water surface area disrupted.

 

[sixn3is7]

I would like to share some observations :blah: . These are not scientific observations because I did not track all potential outside influence, i.e. day/night temp/humidity (we are in the Florida Panhandle and our day and night temperatures have been consistent). However, it was obvious to me as I was working to adjust TA/PH for adding borates.

24 hours of Direct Injection provided a PH increase of .6 and temp decrease of 2DegF
24 hours of Long Hang-time provided a PH increase of .2 and a temp decrease of 6DegF

During full sun, with mask and snorkel, I played with the angle of attack from straight down (-90deg from horizontal) to nice arch (45deg from horizontal). Everywhere generated more/less bubbles but the interesting part was the amount of tiny “Micro Bubbles” (bubbles so small that they appear as a cloud or haze in the water). -45deg provided the most Micro Bubbles such that the cloud of bubbles would almost make it to the other side of an 18’ pool.

The last observation struck me as a little odd and maybe it is just a matter of circumstance. Using my Taylor K-2006, I took PH & TA readings at 7am, 6pm, and at sundown. I did this everyday for 5 days. It appeared that 90% of the PH change occurred overnight. Yes, the aerator was running 24/7 for those 5 days.

Actually, I was very surprised how fast I was able to lower my TA as I was expecting a much longer experience. I started the borate process July 6th and just finished today (still have to run for 48 hours).

My 6 year old and I can tell the difference in the feel and I really noticed my hair was softer, not so dry, when I got out . I did not tell him that I changed the water and I tried to ask him ambiguous questions. The wife does not know yet and I do not plan to tell her, I want to see if she will realize the change.

By the way, the wife won the bet :grrrr: .